Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas finds himself in an extraordinary position and one that is without doubt a true test of how far he has come as a manager.

It appears, perhaps unfairly, that he is fighting the battle to keep Gareth Bale almost single-handedly, at least in the public domain.

It was Villas-Boas who insisted after Spurs were beaten heavily by Monaco in a pre-season friendly on Saturday that the only thing that had been communicated to Real Madrid was that Bale is a Tottenham player and he is not for sale, and that they are preparing for the season with him in tow.

But where was AVB's support? While Real go on an extreme offensive, using every weapon they can muster to lure the player, where is the official response from Tottenham officials? Why has there not been a club statement confirming what is supposedly their resolute standpoint?

One can only ponder Spurs' reasoning. Perhaps they believe that by giving no official word they are abstaining from a situation in which they want no part. But they are a part of it whether they like it or not because Villas-Boas is embroiled into it every time he enters a press room. And he has been left vulnerable and exposed as the club's only spokesperson at present.

It begs the question, what effect could this be having on him?

We have seen Villas-Boas restore his reputation last season as one of Europe's top coaches; an excellent tactician, a humanistic motivator of his players and a calm, collected and intelligent authority in public.

But this is an entirely new situation for him. The current furore surrounding Bale is a symptom of the harsh reality of managing a club who are not yet quite part of Europe's elite. This is not something AVB encountered at either Porto or Chelsea.

Admittedly, he perhaps wasn't at either club for long enough. But Spurs do not have the same abundance of talent as Chelsea or Porto did, or indeed any of their current top-four rivals in the Premier League have now – except, perhaps, for Arsenal. Selling Bale will hit Spurs much harder than it would any of their rivals if they were in the same position.

So can Villas-Boas keep fighting Tottenham's corner alone? What impact is this whole scenario having on him, and on Tottenham's preparations for the new season?

At the moment, the Portuguese is handling himself astutely, and has articulated clearly and concisely what is apparently the club's position. He earned the respect of many British journalists last year and that relationship is being maintained for the most part, despite Bale's situation splattered across both print and new media formats on a daily basis. But there is no doubt the more questions he is asked the thinner his patience will become.

The situation will surely be impacting team morale too, and hindering the growth of Villas-Boas's preparations for the coming campaign. Pre-season is an essential time and not to be taken lightly, and even the slightest disruption can have a knock-on effect into the first few games at least.

Tottenham have suffered at the hands of this before, both when Dimitar Berbatov was sold to Manchester United in 2008 and Luka Modric to Real Madrid last year. The situations with both these players were similar in that both were vocal in their desire to leave, as it seems Bale is too, and there is no reason why this time it won't affect Tottenham in the same way, even if Bale stays.

The apparent injuries to the Welshman, whether you choose to believe them or not, have stopped the player training with the team and taking part in their last four friendlies against Colchester, Sunderland, South China and Monaco. The Tottenham squad draw on Bale as a source of inspiration but they will be leaking the inspiration they need going into a new season while Bale is not taking part in preparations along side his teammates.

And this, in turn, puts even more strain on Villas-Boas, it cannot be denied.

The longer this debacle is drawn out, despite AVB appearing confident in Daniel Levy that he will not renege on his word and cave in to the pressure from Madrid, the longer he may ponder that Bale's sale may actually become an eventuality this summer. And if that becomes so, then Spurs supporters have even more cause to worry because Tottenham stand to lose AVB a lot sooner than they planned to, should they sell Bale.

Many managers have, rightly, walked out of clubs when players have been sold without their blessing and, although Villas-Boas works as head coach and not as the club manager, relinquishing much of the responsibility of buying and selling of players, he would be fully within his moral rights to do so should the worst happen.

AVB is a human after all and, while the club continues to pussyfoot around putting an end to what has fast become a chaotic situation, he may be thinking about his own future at White Hart Lane too.